I traveled to Chile in January of 2026. This is my first time in this country although I have been in other parts of South America including Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Brazil. My brother, Rick and I arrived after a red eye from Miami. I was struck by how many foreigners were coming into Chile when we went through immigration and the area for Chilean Nationals stood empty. I assume it’s that everyone is arriving to escape the cold wet short days of the Northern Hemisphere. It was quite the shock to the system to go from 40-degree rain of the Pacific Northwest where the sunsets at 4 PM to 90 degrees, arid dry and sunset at 8:30 PM. I had to keep looking at my watch to reassure myself that yes, we should probably eat dinner before going to bed.

The Gran Torre (tallest building in South America) with the snow capped Andean range in the distance in Santiago Chile.

 Santiago is somewhat like Los Angeles. It’s a sprawling city that sits in a bowl between the glacier covered Andes to the east and the coastal mountains to the west. This causes, similar to LA, the smog to sit in the bottom of the bowl so it was pretty hazy most of the time. We dropped our bags off at the hotel we were staying at and headed to an obscure park in an Uber.

I find that using Uber is a godsend because I don’t need to know how to pronounce the address and I am reassured by the map on the app that we are headed to the correct location. I have been hunting trolls by Thomas Dambo for a little over a year. Dambo is an artist who uses only sustainable or used products to create is somewhat enormous wooden and sometimes metal structures called Trolls. There are over 100 trolls worldwide but only one troll in South America. The only troll in South America called Ulle is located in a Parque de la Familia in Santiago. So, my brother and I headed to this park in an Uber to locate this structure which is locally called “The Wooden Man.” Once we were dropped off at the park, we walked about a half mile to see Ulle sitting by the water’s edge. It was fun to discover an elusive troll. It’s like looking for Easter eggs. We ordered another Uber, and the driver asked us how long we had been in Santiago and we said a few hours. He was perplexed why were wandering this obscure park on the outskirts of Santiago just hours after landing. We explained that we were looking for the troll. He, like everyone else we met, did not know about the troll.

We next went to the Gran Torre Santiago which is the tallest building in South America which stands 984 feet tall or 62 stories. We happened to be there two days after some unseasonable rain had passed through so the peaks of the Andean Mountains were snow covered. It was a spectacular view of the mountains, and you could see a 360 view of the expanse of the enormous city which has 40% of the country’s population. We ate lunch at the top at Sky Costanera which had excellent food. By the time we exited Gran Torre it was 3 PM and the traffic was bumper to bumper. We almost got hit by a bus trying to get to our Uber. I doubt the driver spoke English, but she said, “Mucho Taco.” I thought that talking about food seemed odd, so I immediately looked up the expression and apparently, it’s one of the many slang words specific to Chile which means “a lot of traffic.” I enjoyed using this expression going forward with each subsequent ride we got in Chile.

Our last day in Santiago we spent traveling around the center of the city at the old central market which had hundreds of fish and produce purveyors. We walked through the narrow aisles as folks came along to shop. A lot of the buildings in Santiago has a French influence. This stems from the fact that the French helped Santiago achieve independence from Spain in the 1810.

The last place we toured was San Cristobal Hill. It’s a hill in the center of Santiago which is 2,831 feet tall. We took a funicular up the hill and then toured around the top. The Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception on San Cristobal Hill is a principal place of worship for Catholics in Santiago. There is an enormous amphitheater and alter outside where mass is also held. At the very top of the hill is the Statue of Virgin Mary which is 45 feet tall. The top of the hill has been a shrine for indigenous people well before the Spanish ever arrived. On the way back down San Cristobal we took a cable car with a terrific aerial view of the city.

Most amenities have been quite modern. Outside of some tipping, we have been able to use touchless credit card transactions for our trip. We haven’t been handed a menu but instead scan a QR code which is helpful for getting it in the correct language. It’s been quite the adventure so far between looking for obscure trolls to rising to new heights. It’s a terrific gateway to the southern end of South America.